Orange Alert

This is my first Executioner in a very long time (the last one I read was Hong Kong Hit List in 1988). I feel like I picked an excellent place to start back up - the book was well-written and I enjoyed it. There were a few places where seemingly-inconsequential details were introduced into the story which I knew would pay off later in the end, particularly one in the final scene - I found those contributed to my enjoyment of the final parts of the book, particularly one where Mack finds a certain item under a mattress which I knew he would find handy in the end. The only thing which I disliked was the way in which Mack obtained the final clue which allowed him to thwart the bag guys' plan for the detonation of the dirty bomb by happening to be at the right place and right time to hear a crucial bit of information - this is an old plot device and just feels a bit cheap to me. But, that's a minor complaint at best. Overall, I thought this one was a real winner!

While I thought this one started off on a great note--Mack is in recovery mode to fetch a fallen agent, gets into a firefight, then has to fend off the bad guys in a car chase. From then on, the action moved in fits and starts as Bolan must stop a dirty bomb from being detonated on U.S. soil. There were some complex plotting that didn't always come across well, but Bolan and a few allies race between Ireland, Germany and the U.S. to stop an Irish radical group. Finale scene was decent for this slightly above average book.

Wow! This one was tough reading. Long and slow. Loads of meetings, briefings and chunks of the book covering other characters besides Mack. The author clearly doesn't get what makes an Executioner novel. The pace is so slow, and every scene reads as if it's twice as long as it is actually written. Where's the pace? As for the plotting, there is no real intrigue. An interesting set up is revealed by Mack just guessing what's really going on and not uncovering anything through any real detective work. The action isn't bad though when it rarely happens. This is a sub-par Bolan all the way. Pick any of the 400+ and you'll find a read better than this one.

This is this author's first crack at this series and what a superb effort he has produced. Brilliant extremely complicated plot which is slowly introduced as the storyline progresses interspersed with some very fine action scenes. It's very hard not to give anything away regarding this title as it is plot/plot but a small spoiler if you wish to stop reading now please do so. One of the very good parts in the action scenes features an assassin. Imagine Bolan has to infiltrate a guarded compound to retrieve something with 34 enemy to be faced. Well this assassin manages to do this easily and also comes so close to ending the big guys career. I loved the way the author placed little teasers during the storyline and when you first read it you took little notice of it but at the end when it has been used/explained why it was included I thought to myself yep that's why. This is displayed vividly during the last section where the assassin is straddling Bolan and strangling him almost to death with what happens. This little gem of information was placed maybe halfway through the title and if you decide to read this look how much difference it made at the end of the title. I absolutely loved this and would highly recommend this for your reading. Looking forward to reading his next title in the series.

First time Bolan author Peter Spring provides an actual story to this Executioner entry, “Orange Alert.” Using a dirty bomb is one of the few worn clichés he uses. “Orange Alert” is entertaining, engaging and goes along very sprightly for the series. His characterizations seem real and his command of varied subjects indicate detailed research. There are a lot of flaws, starting with the way the Bolan is sometimes handled. He seems more like a spy than the real Executioner. For example, there is a part in the novel where Bolan’s trail goes to a mobster, who has to be the most clueless mafia enforcer this side of the Executioner series. The background information of him killing federal agents and killing assorted members of a federal judge’s family, a Bolan in any other book would have been ashamed for not just going after him when this happened, but he would have been extremely upset that Brognola did not tell him. There are a number of plot holes and weird writing choices. More words were spent describing a safehouse in Ireland than were used to create all of the subsequent scenes that took place there. And come to think of it, this has to be one of the longer Executioners spanning over a couple of months. It only took him four to five days to find and defend a lost Mayan city in the previous installment. All in all though, the author provides memorable villains. One of them is a mirror of the mafia-wars Executioner, and another a parallel of the current incarnation of Bolan. It's an interesting choice what he does with those characters. I recommend “Orange Alert” for the fresh storytelling. His style and prose kind of reminds me of a Ron Renauld and Peter Leslie’s best work. Hopefully he will write more Executioner titles. His first one was decently good.

This is an impressive debut novel in the series from Peter Spring. From the start, the action is plenty, and there are many exciting action scenes that could make for a good movie. Bolan displays a lot of ingenuity in his adventure, and the shootouts are usually more memorable than many standard scenes in a lot of these books. What really sets this book apart is it's one of the more original stories I've read in some time. And for a first entry in the series, Spring does a great job portraying a Bolan that is believable, and more true to the character than many other novelists in the past were able to achieve from the start. The plot was interesting, with many characters involved , many locations also, and an ending that had me on the edge of my seat. Palmer, the central villain, was to me one of the better bad guys I have seen in this series. Even an entire action scene is dedicated to this man's activities, and it is a good one, with skills rivaling the type of thing Bolan himself would be capable of. Although the final showdown is brief, it is quite unique, and took me by total surprise. The villain's plans were very complex, even confusing at times, but an interesting plot idea. I wish I could have been familiar with the locations where the story takes place, but the author does a decent job of describing the areas so I was able to visualize the action ok. Overall, I recommend everyone who is a fan of the series to give this writer a try, I very much look forward to more books from Spring.